Next season’s annual spring break festival called the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship might be viewed by plenty more suspicious eyes.

When a big-name team beats a so-called mid-major, many will think all is right with the world.

That’s the feeling among fan bases at Arizona, Auburn, Oklahoma State and Southern California. That’s been the train of thought in Louisville for decades. Cardinal Nation has three national championships to show for it.

Or is it two? The most recent one in 2013 has been tainted and could be vacated.

What’s worse is that the recent revelation of an ongoing federal investigation into bribery in major college basketball, which has led to 10 arrests, has nothing to do with that championship. But the man who orchestrated Louisville’s title that year, Rick Pitino, is now out of a job and may never coach in the NCAA again.

Should we be shocked that Pitino called Louisville’s tie to the ongoing FBI case “a complete shock”? The man who was the extortion victim of a lady he had extramarital sex with played ignorant to a prostitution sting — in which the prostitute stung the Cardinals — and called on the assistant coach alleged to arrange the sex acts with recruits to admit his role.

The paragraph you just read was more about sex than basketball. Let that sink in.

This more recent scandal involves money, the love of which is a root of all kinds of evil.

If, as Pitino said, “these third-party schemes [were] initiated by a few bad actors,” his acting credentials won’t show for it.

We should have seen this coming, not just in Louisville. The practice of someone paying a coach or person who pretends to have an athlete’s best interests at heart thousands of dollars to sway the young person’s college decision is an age-old problem.

The shock that reverberated this week didn’t come from the controversy. It came from the revelation of the controversy.

The sadness from it is even more gripping.

For all its imperfections, a money making machine that uses (mostly legally unpaid) student-athletes to promote its brand and the brands behind it, like universities, is brought to a negative light when we’re not even halfway through the college football season.

Think what questions Bobby Petrino might face after Saturday’s game against Murray State.

Here’s one: “Talk to me about the working relationship you and [now-fired athletic director Tom Jurich] had.” OK, not exactly a question, but someone’s burning to ask it.

Here’s another: “Will you stay at Louisville?”

Why those questions? Jurich is the same man who took back a man who bailed on a 10-year agreement with Louisville for an ill-fated season with the Atlanta Falcons. Petrino bailed on the Falcons, too.

And a lie about a motorcycle wreck in the Arkansas mountains ended his run with the Razorbacks. An entire state’s moral identity was challenged.

That brings us back to Jurich.

Jurich’s moral identity dropped when he took back Petrino and stood by Pitino. When Jurich reportedly refused to let Pitino go in the wake of the investigation, Jurich was ousted.

This is the microcosm of a corrupt athletic department that uses two sports as its big money makers. Its success on the basketball court is the stuff of legends.

Like some legends, this one can be questioned.

Auburn basketball coach Bruce Pearl nearly has the same winning percentage as Pitino (not at Auburn, though), and he’s feeling the same heat.

His assistant coach, Chuck Person, drew six charges in the investigation: Bribery conspiracy, solicitation of bribes, hones services fraud conspiracy, honest services fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and Travel Act conspiracy. Six charges.

He and seven other men, including no head coaches but three other assistants, charged face up to 80 years in prison. A sports agent and financial adviser are looking at 200 years, charged also with paying the bridges and money laundering.

This is how low college basketball has gotten behind the scenes.

Pearl couldn’t lie his way out of a recruiting violation at Tennessee, and no lie will heal his reputation at Auburn. Whether he knew about Person’s misdeeds or not, the only act Pearl can perform is one of contrition.

It’s his program, and others, that are affected. And it’s his widely popular sport that is already hurting before tipoff.
•
I.C. Murrell can be reached at 549-8541 or at ic.murrell@panews.com. On Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews